Hot Springs, MT
Hot Springs wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Hot Springs lands at the 89th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 502 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Hot Springs's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 89th percentile nationally.
Where Hot Springs's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Hot Springs (91.6% of 502 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 8.4% sit in the Direct zone.
Where Hot Springs ranks
Hot Springs's risk sits at a similar level relative to Montana (75th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (89th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hot Springs ranks 3,373 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,315 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 118 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Hot Springs and the insurance market
Hot Springs's 89th-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Hardening a home in Hot Springs
Hot Springs's 91.6% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Hot Springs's 3,373-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Hot Springs, see the exposure-zones guide.